Golden Hippogriffs head to regionals

The Golden Eagles and the Tigers battled on the sideline as well, as Awesome Eagle and Tigre, right, banter in jest. Jamal Ferguson

The Tech Quidditch Club is currently preparing for its second regional tournament as a sanctioned club of the University.

The regionals tournament is one of six that are held within the United States alone. Each tournament controls a certain number of bids to send winning teams to the International Quidditch Association's World Cup which is held once a year for teams around the globe. The South's regional tournament will be held February 15th and 16th in Rock Hill, S.C., and will control bids for seven teams to attend the world cup on April 5 in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

The Tech Quidditch Club has had much success since its formation in winter of 2011. Last year, TTU's Golden Hippogriffs took second place in the South's regional tournament and moved on to the IQA world cup in Orlando, where they placed 32nd out of 80 teams.

Senior captain Kellie Davis said the team's growth rate is high.

"We've grown tremendously," Davis said. "We started with six people our first practice and we've got about 60 playing members right now."

Davis said that not all 60 members of the club could attend events such as tournaments at other universities, so rosters must be drawn up before departing for each event. One member of the club, sophomore Cyril Foght, is a newer player who comes to practices as well as home games and tournaments, but has not been able to attend any of the events away from campus. Foght said he understands the club's goal is to include many students.

"It's a ton of fun, and we have a much different community than most other sports," Foght said. "Its goal is to be a lot more inclusive of other people. We don't really discriminate, as happens behind the scenes in a lot of sports."

As the club prepares for its regional tournament in a few weeks, players said they remain confident that they will continue in their footsteps to prominence in the IQA.

Senior chaser and seeker Michael Ferowich said, "I'm feeling pretty good. We have a pretty solid team. Last year, we got second at Regionals. We're hoping to get first this year, but there are some good teams we will have to beat to do that. I think we can do a lot better than we did last year."

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